And, this is the time to add in those extra bits – a wee bit of news, a link to twitter perhaps and maybe a helpful little search box on top.

Once that is taken care of, it is time for our post-its to make their entry. A few dotted lines, a bit of scissor work…pretty much like ol’ Blue Peter…and we have a rough skeleton of the new concept shaping up.

Now then, don’t you expect to get all the things right in the very first go. You might need to move things around a bit, and maybe even start from scratch again! And then of course, there would be the stake holders all along, itching to add in their two pennies worth.

Anyway to cut a long story short, after a few sketches, and some rework you will find yourself in a position to tidy things up. Adobe’s fireworks is what we use for this. They have a nice set of tools and you can easily export to a PDF file. We usually ping these out to clients to show a tidied up version to confirm meeting notes and ensure that all issues were discussed.

This is where we introduce the concept of a grey box. The image below is the same stuff as the sketches, just tidied up a little.

The grey box process in fact relies on open thinking. We might easily get to the design at this point. You can almost see it, can’t you?  But then this is the stage where feedback is all important. Take the time out, make sure all angles are covered and you have gotten in all that you would want, and the effort will definitely pay off at the end. These are the critical initial stages. People are at their most creative, ideas are flowing and no one is bound by limits of nice looking designs that rail road you into one way of thinking. Above all, costs are low. If you don’t like how things are going, you simply bin them and just start all over again. No hassle there.

Now when you finally have the rough sketch, go home, show the wife, the kids, anyone you like. (And, when it comes to the comment part, remember the wife’s bit is not to be discarded lightly! They might not be the ultimate authority on web site design or eMarketing.  But that is one important source to be relied on for strong opinions of what a site should be like, and what designs are cool. Squeezing out a few minutes in between the baby’s nap and the day’s washing for a quick recipe from Jamie Oliver’s cookery blog, while whisking through eBay and netmums – count on them for some practical opinion on what a quick surfer would want from a site.)

Time for a quick PC disclaimer! The third party opinion does not have to be limited to ‘the wife’ alone. It could be your partner, your mum, your dad or a web savvy neighbour- just about anyone. Basically what we are saying is this – show people. A few extra pairs of eyeballs to spot flaws that you might have missed – a great internet thing called ‘crowdsourcing’. Well, this opinion bit is not based on any solid survey or poll, just anecdotal stuff that was discussed in the office and has been testified as quite an effective tool.

Are you still there with us on this?

• No? Good luck, we wish you well.
• Yes? We really are going to get on! Call us.

P.S. Did you spot the ol’ post-it note in the grey box? It managed to stick on this far. Bet you the designer will get rid of it in the next stage!

Post tip1 and pre tip2

Right, you gave me all that twaddle about post-it notes. Point taken Mr Owner, Director, Marketing manager, IT dude who has just inherited this web thing. But incidentally my competitors are right now shelling out fortunes on their new websites.  Ahem…I hear Jones and Jones diggers are spending nothing short of 50K on their new one! All I know is I want a new website, and it simply has to be the best in the industry.

Well, all of the above have actually been said to me, apart from the word twaddle. Ha, I bet this is yet to figure even in the Enriched Teen’s Vocabulary Edition!

Coming to Scissors, paper, pens and post-its… I know they don’t exactly sound like the newest in technology, and doesn’t really come across as the best piece of professional advice in the age of Twitter and the iPad.

But, surprisingly the entire process is actually quite thorough and looks something like this:

•    Simple tools such as post-it notes to capture, check  requirements and priorities
•    Initial sketches / grey boxing to echo back
•    Click-able prototype to confirm that we are going to deliver something that was wanted in the first place
•    Design
•    Build
•    QA / Test / Training
•    Go Live

The technology and techno babble in fact comes in only later. We can’t possibly “give you” a website at the very outset. We don’t know your business, your clients or your products. Our job at this point is just to get you talking. We could put on a German accent, use a desk lamp and turn a bright shining light on to you.  “You vill talk”. Now, before you get the politically correct police on to us… we don’t do that and we love Germany, especially Heidelberg.

The point we are making is this. A process is needed to capture all the requirements. There will be a lot of sorting, rejecting and change of focus. When the client takes the post-its out of our hands, we know that we are onto a winner. The client is engaging, they are starting to own the process. They are starting to build the site. That is exactly what we want, a partnership approach that will lead to a win-win scenario.

If you think you don’t have to be put through all this hassle for a new website, let’s be honest, we know you could spend 50 quid and get your site done in Mumbai or Jakarta. Heck, you can even go to WordPress.com and get a site for free! (and sometimes that is the right thing to do.)

I hope you are still there with us after all this? Good, in that case we are going to get on quite well and I see a winning website shaping up in the horizon.

Hmmm, this stuff works for Social Media also?

Wait! Before you make up your mind, let me explain., There are times when you feel your current website is not quite up to the mark and you might think a brand new one might do the trick, Well, the truth is you are probably better off without a new one right now!

You would not believe the number of times we have seen this typical scenario of a client coming in with the wish list:

• I need to have a new website
• I need to have it done yesterday
• It’s just a few pages
• And do remember to keep it cheap

It would then be followed by a few typical questions from our side, like:

• What is the new website for?
• Do you already have one? What is wrong with it?
• Where is your business heading? New products? New services?

It soon becomes very clear that there is a bit of a muddle going on. There are conflicting requirements, desires, needs and perhaps a vision that is a little on the cloudy side. Usually it is the sales team that are banging on the table. Absolutely normal for they are front line and need to look good with the client. But are they the only ones that need to be satisfied? Do we need a lick of paint, a patch up job and a few pics of happy smiley people? Maybe.

The truth is that if you get it wrong, the website will only reflect the internal lack of vision going on within your company. And the last things you want your potential clients to be thinking when they look at your website would be:

• I can’t find a thing!!!
• This looks like it hasn’t seen an update in ages (Are they on the ropes? Cutting back?)
• Hmmm…“Findmywidgetco and sons” seem to be far better than this crowd; Better get back to their site…

So, do you want a website right now, this second? Probably not.

Where do we go from here? Luckily the answer is not a multimillion dollar decision support system that is going to need McKinsey Co consultants being parachuted in.

The solution is in fact quite simple.  All you need to do is gather some post-it notes, a little common sense and all your stake holders around the table.  And, before you know it, you will see the website begin to take shape right in front of your eyes.

Simple.

Got a round table?

Keep the ideas coming.

Start sorting and grouping, your ideal website is almost there.

Last year as I looked forward to 2009 my Google searches did not reveal much to tickle my fancy. This year however there is plenty to digest. As a first observation more people seem to be looking forward, which I fully understand, more are taking guesses and are making interesting predictions.

The Scotsman even compares the previous year’s predictions. Nice. http://bit.ly/8GQ9zo

These are my favourites:

• Fox news: http://bit.ly/797XKz
• Regular geek: http://bit.ly/78W9Op
• Little box of ideas: http://bit.ly/6oYfNO

At Imre we probably need to pay more attention to these predictions.
Marketing Vox:  http://bit.ly/4N7TEo

Then there are all of these:

• http://bit.ly/76pz7R – Good to know where gold and energy prices are headed.
• http://bit.ly/84IPiR – I am always interested in leadership. Those that have vision and can lead their troops into battle are worth their weight in gold. But this Murdoch thing seems foolhardy or is it just big balls?
• http://bit.ly/4ZLZBJ – Looks like HR managers will be busy, a good thing.
• http://bit.ly/7NwljJ - Gobbledygook.
• http://bit.ly/5vya4M -Fraud will be up, up, up and up. Now that is a one way bet.
• http://bit.ly/8hUeNy – Written in 1997 and predicting the 2010 political landscape.
• http://bit.ly/53w4yN Trendwatching.com. I remember them from last year. These people are very insightful and really do a good job. Urbany? Fluxury? All good to test your spell checker.
• http://bit.ly/5jv1M9 – Value is the new black.
• http://bit.ly/4J7WvZ – The future of social change on the web.
• http://bit.ly/6puGXl – 8 news media trends for 2010
• http://bit.ly/79LwzU – An actual blip in the Netcraft hosts curve. Then totally amazed to read about the growth of “nginx” :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nginx All new to me! (Did I work in hosting?)

So where does that leave us with the thinking for 2010?

Value, radical thinking, relentless change, social media maturity where we can expect the likes of toobla.com to tie up the lose ends to make things more workable. Local seems to come up again and again.

And for our clients?

Most are using smart phones, those that are not, really need to make the jump. Devices such as iPhones will bring home how local services can work, and also where there are a few spare minutes, dipping into social media is entirely possible. Most clients say that they do not have time for social media activities. I think 2010 will be the year that those  who are not taking part in the conversations will find themselves exposed.

Cmon 2010, help us forget 2009! And it is time for an African team to show that 2010 belongs to Africa.

Happy new year from the IMRE Team!!

Late update:
From the Beeb for UK Manufacturing. Good for 2010.

The amazing thing about this Flexidry floor screed is that when we asked for the USPs and the differentiators we got back a list of 15! Any of which could have formed the main marketing message for the new website.

Just to give you an idea here are just a few of them:

• Speed up drying time  (down from 110 days to 7 – huge implications for trades that need to get on with their work)
• Reduced shrinkage and cracking.  (Try pulling up a huge floor that has gone wrong)
• Works really well with underfloor heating and has a huge part to play in sustainable buildings. (Cement has high CO2 implications)

Flexidry logo seen in an image with helmet and underfloor heating (c) Flexidry Global Ltd

Massive, massive potential with this product and the Flexidry team really know their stuff.

Needless to say we have an exciting project to work on that will comprise of calculators, mobile devices and ecommerce. Watch this space.

He got right down to business and began looking into industry best practice and how we could operate better as a business. The year went like a flash and now as I look back I can see the terrific progress that was made.

I am not going to tell you everything, but the logos above should give you an idea of the work done by Mike.

The biggest improvements came in project management. The core of our business now runs on the products from 37signals.com. Basecamp is a truly an impressive tool that keeps all of our communications, tasks and milestones in one place.

Right, how do we now fill some shoes the size of barge boats?

Good luck Mike!

“Why do business with Imre?”

I think I gave some waffle as I had to think on my feet, on reflection, I should have pointed to the following.

• Mike, Przemek and I all come from customer support backgrounds. Client support is something that we take very seriously. Mike and Marcin are currently bashing the tin on our new  ticketing support system.
• We have high client retention. Most clients have been with us for at least 3 or 4 years.  In a recent survey of 60 clients only 2 would not score us a 4 or 5. Even with these clients we put in 110%. As they say, you cant win them all.
• Doing the right thing for us is all about getting the right strategy in place for the client. White elephants are just the wrong way to go. Getting it right means coming up with the  goods that make sense. And how do we do this? We follow best practice and agile development methods whilst getting down to the essential client objectives.
• We have a decent portfolio of work, client types and industry sectors. Essentially, we are credible players in  our market.

Not convinced? Watch this youtube video clip to find out more.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuJzQKw6xD0

A big thank you to Iain Chalmers from the Holst Group for being such a great client and for going out of his way to make this video in support of Imre.

Clue:
Carry out the mathematical operation on the company name and the answer = 2

Example: 
Try to move a domain or talk to support and you get the feeling that life just cannot be this hard. In one example a client was dumped into a black hole and I was pleading with an Indian support manager to do the decent thing, which he promised to do. On the next phone call I found that he had finished his shift! Arrrghhh. Result, client email and website was down for 48 hours. No fault of ours, as we had been bady advised and supported on what should have been a simple procedure. (A procedure that we follow with many other hosting companies!)

Now let us talk about Rapidhost.
A  decent, capable, intelligent and a people oriented hosting company. They are a joy to deal with as you can actually talk to them, without cultural translations, and they really know their stuff. For a specific project we needed a load balancing solution and they simply and calmly organized the technology  and came up with a deal that would not break the bank of our startup client. Every interaction that I have had with them has been entirely professional whether it be on the sales side or working with the support team. Rapidhost show that on a daily basis hosting does not have to make your blood boil! Rapidhost are different and are worth a serious look. Simple.

The great news for us is that we have been added to the Rapidhost partner page. This is a great boon when you consider that the gesture was entirely theirs. We must have done something right! Thank you Rapidhost.

It can’t be all that bad? Can it?

So it was time for some Google research to find out who will be surviving the recession. Below you will find, I think, some very interesting resources. A “wordle” was a new idea for me

• Small biz will do well
• A recession buster wordle!!!  (A Wordle?)
• A very good explanation of sector, stock market and economic interplay via a visual and graphs.
• Five sectors that can survive. (Not what I expected!)
• Online ad sector should do well
• An Indian perspective
• A discussion on Linked-in

mebeli
So whilst we are being “stuffed” some “stuff” is actually happening. My view on all of this?

We need to be more like speed boats than oil tankers. By this I mean, small and nimble, always flexible, always adapting and most importantly we need to be able to demonstrate value to our clients.

Well I want to share a couple of examples that I’ve come across. Yesterday, we probably all heard about the amazing job done by a brave American Airlines pilot, dumping his plane into the Hudson river without any loss of life. What is different though, is a large number of you probably heard about it first through twitter. It turns out that one of the first ferry’s on the scene happened to have a man by the name of Janis Krums. Mr. Krums by luck had an iPhone on him and was in his twitter application so as the Ferry approached the plane to help the survivors he took a picture which went straight onto twitpic (the photo part of twitter) and the word was out…beating any professional reporter even though this is NEW YORK!

Now at least I can say that Mr. Krums didn’t take his micro-blogging quite as seriously as a certain Mike Wilson did in December. Mr. Wilson was actually in a plane crash and twittered updates throughout the entire ordeal leaving some to question the state of mind of a man that is trying to save his own life. The initial message of “Holy bleep bleep – I was just in a plane crash!” was followed with peaches like “Ugh … My glasses fell off in the mass exodus getting off the plane .. Can’t see very well” and “Continental keeping us locked up at the presidents club until they can sort everything out. Won’t even serve us drinks. ” (Another link but be warned of no censoring!) Now this is obviously the other extreme side of the scale, but it is facinating as news agencies will give their right arms for eyewitness and survivor accounts. Well I would be scared if I were them, because now these eyewitnesses and survivors have their own voice without the need to use a news agency. Powerful stuff!

Lastly I want to share with you a little story that demonstrates the power of blogging. If I told you that I could create life with a blog you probably wouldn’t believe me. What if I told you, not only could I create life, but I could do it in the form of a prodigal 16-year old Moldovan football star that will be the next big signing for a team like Arsenal or Real Madrid. I kid you not…it’s happened. Now fortunately the scandal has been uncovered as a clever ruse – they still don’t know who was behind the scam or even the motivation – but through a series of blog postings, an update to Wikipedia and some other clever uses of imagination, certain news agencies were fooled into thinking Masal Bugduv was the next big thing, even going so far that the Times listed him number 30 in their list of fledgling superstars. Of course this has left a lot of red faces, and even yesterday (24 hours after it was discovered to be a scam), the cleanup operation had begun and poor old Masal is being wiped out – although an amusing apology can be found at the bottom of this page from goal.com. Well it just shows the power that each and everyone of us have to communicate to the world…so why not start using it?